Founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 in a working class and predominantly immigrant neighborhood in Chicago, Hull House was a radical experiment in local democracy. It offered a kindergarten, classes in art, music and culture, meeting spaces for political and labor organizations, amongst many other activities that built community and solidarity. The residents of Hull House were at the forefront of progressive political organizing from the 1890s into the 1920s. Today the museum there continues this legacy of democratic community building. It is totally worth a visit if you’re ever in Chicago!

A friend of mine recently recommended this secret gem of a walking tour in Berkeley–it’s award winning! It uncovers little known stories about freedom and justice fighters from the South Asian community. Learn more about it at http://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/

I recently learned about a history professor who decided to map the most efficient route to traveling all of the sites on the U.S. Historic Register. Now, that’s my kind of ambition. Read more about the map here and check out the map itself here:

As far as I know, this is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the history of Filipino Americans. Did you know, for example, that Filipino American workers started the grape strike that the United Farm Workers took up and eventually won? Learn more about the museum here.

It’s great to have children’s books about contemporary social movements. Often we teach social movements as if they were things that happened in the past, which disconnects us from how we might participate in collective action here and now. You can learn more about the book as well as other books that address working class stories here at Hard Ball Press.

I recently learned about this new museum in Matewan, which takes a people’s history approach to the labor struggles there. There are so few museums in the U.S. that cover the history of U.S. labor organizing, so this museum fills an important gap. Here’s a link to a film about the museum: